


you were my town (now i'm in exile seeing you out)

by SaltyPistachio



Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV)
Genre: F/F, aftermath of season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26018212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltyPistachio/pseuds/SaltyPistachio
Summary: Sterling takes stock after the lock-in night
Relationships: Sterling Wesley/April Stevens
Comments: 33
Kudos: 355





	you were my town (now i'm in exile seeing you out)

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all mistakes are on me
> 
> Y'all, I loved this show more than I intended so I churned this out real quick

Sterling had gone through an absolute  _ shit _ week. 

Semi-shit.

It started off strong. She had been hooking up with April and the butterflies she never felt with Luke were migrating to her stomach and she suddenly understood why Luke had never been able to coax an orgasm out of her. He just…didn’t make her tick. Not like April, who had her gripped since before she could remember. 

She had been riding high.

Then it all went to shit. Understandably so, she thought.

She was kidnapped by her mom’s secret fugitive twin after she had been dumped by her secret...girlfriend? Hookup? April. 

Then she had been in the crossfire of a shoot-out between her yogurt shop boss slash bounty hunter mentor and the dude her aunt (mom?) had been planning on running away with. (Wait, was he her dad?  _ Fuck _ )

Overall, it made for a solid college essay. 

She just wanted to go back in time and relive that moment in the parking lot with April-- heavy hands sliding up bare legs and hot mouths traveling along necks and lips, breathy moans filling the car as April writhed under her. 

There was a tentative knock on her door and soft footsteps made their way to her bed, a dip the only warning as a warm body draped over her prone form. “Hey, Sterl,” Blair murmured. 

She stayed quiet and blinked away the silent tears that had begun to form around the corner of her eyes. 

“Time to face the world again.”

Sterling curled into herself a little tighter, burrowing her face into the pillow she was hugging. “I can’t,” she said, her throat raw and her words trembling as they fell out.

“Oh, come on. Little Miss Perfect can’t stay away from school this long, can she?” Blair teased, the words hollow and strained. They’d hit a rough patch since the “lock-in” night, as Sterling kept calling it in her head. She was trying a new thing-- compartmentalization. 

April was wrong, it was very hard to do.

Blair gently shifted Sterling into a sitting position, running her fingers through straight, blonde locks. “I’ll be there with you, every step of the way. Twin swear,” she assured. 

Sterling felt a lump in her throat. “But we’re not,” she whined, feeling like a petulant child. 

“Hey,” Blair said sternly, twisting Sterling’s face towards her own, “you’re still my sister. Despite the fucked up biological family tree mess we’re in.” She bit her lip and wiped away Sterling’s tears. “God will...light our path or something,” she said offhandedly.

Sterling let out a little disbelieving snort. “You don’t actually believe that.”

“You’re right. Thought it would make you feel better though.”

Sterling gave her a weak giggle, wiping her runny nose with the back of her hand. Blair grinned and leaned into her. “The devil works hard but Wesleys work harder.”

Sterling’s lips tugged downwards but she managed to keep the small smile pasted on. For Blair’s sake. “What does that even mean? Are we his interns or something?”

Both shuddered and made the sign of the cross over themselves. Blair lunged off the bed and walked into Sterling’s closet, pulling out whatever clothes she could find. “I don’t know,” she said over her shoulder. “But it sounded badass.”

She threw the school’s uniform at Sterling and gave her a soft look. “And we are the most badass sisters in Atlanta,” she finished quietly. 

Sterling could just give her a weak grin in response. 

* * *

Students kept staring and whispering behind their hands whenever she walked by; it was very reminiscent of the time the school found out she had premarital sex-- except this time they weren’t so much judging her as they were pitying her. Nobody knew the true, gritty details of what she had gone through, but April was right (this time). Rumors did travel fast. 

Just that morning alone, she had received several light touches to her arms and reassurances of people’s prayers. Blair hovered and did her best to steer her away from them, but even her well-intentioned actions felt suffocating. What made things worse was that April was avoiding her while still throwing her concerned looks and Luke kept pursuing her down the halls, his clingy nature resurfacing once more.

Somehow she managed to get through the day with only one mini-breakdown during lunch. She was halfway through the parking lot with Blair when Blair’s phone went off, a small ping that meant she had received a text. Blair looked down at her phone and groaned, a low and guttural sound that conveyed her overdramatic annoyance clearly. “Shit. I have to meet with Coach real quick. Ten minutes-- tops. Will you be okay?”

Sterling rolled her eyes. “I don’t need you to coddle me,” she said, her tone bitter and biting. A surge of guilt rushed through her as Blair recoiled slightly, her eyes wide and stunned.

“Right. Okay, um, I’ll be back soon.” She hesitated, her body half turned in the direction of the athletic department but her feet planted towards Sterling. “I love you so much, sis,” she said, her voice small and childlike. 

Sterling swallowed hard. “Love you too,” she murmured. 

They parted ways and Sterling slid into the passenger’s seat. She rested her arm on the armrest and propped her head up by her hand, rubbing fruitlessly at the throbbing headache she had.

The driver’s side door was forcefully opened and someone who was decidedly not Blair fell into the seat. The door slammed shut and Sterling leaned as far back against her own door as she could under the intense stare April Stevens was leveling at her. 

Just seeing her again made Sterling’s maxilla go numb and her heart lurch violently. Even after all the heartbreak she caused, April still had a hold over Sterling. She’d always had a hold on her, Sterling realized. Ever since elementary school when Sterling was certain that she couldn’t love anyone as much as she loved Blair, but April had been a close second. They’d spend hours together after school; April memorizing quotes that were her favorite or the ones she thought would be useful, and Sterling memorizing the girl next to her. She used to have bangs that would bounce every time she got passionate about whatever book she was reading that week. Sterling had loved watching her hair sway about. 

“I heard what happened.” Straight to the point then, as always. “I...Are you okay?” April’s hand fidgeted with the strap of her bag and Sterling was almost half-amused by how undone the normally composed girl was letting herself be. The last time she had been this addled was when Sterling had hovered over her in the Volt.

Sterling gave her a side-glare. “What did you hear?” she asked, genuinely curious to hear what the hypothetical situations the rumour mill had put her through. 

“You and your mom were kidnapped. Some lunatic tried to get your mom to drive them across the border.” April looked down at her hands and her jaw tightened. “I doubt the stories are true. I know how words get twisted around here.” She let out a little sigh and tentatively covered Sterling’s hand with her own. “I just...wanted to make sure you were okay, Sterl.”

The nickname ignited something in the taller girl and she yanked her hand back, instantly missing the warmth of April’s hand but doing her best to stick by her guns. “I’m not dead. I’d say I’m pretty okay,” she snarked. 

April opened her mouth to say something but Sterling wasn’t done. “Except I’m super sad all the time now and you’re not totally blame-free. So, emotionally speaking, I’m very much not ‘okay’,” she spit out.

A taut line appeared on April’s neck and Sterling went dizzy with memories of her lips nipping along that same neck. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“You know, some could argue that it was your fault,” Sterling mumbled.

April narrowed her eyes and tilted her head in confusion. “Excuse me?”

Sterling huffed and crossed her arm, looking out the window and shooting a quick prayer to the big man that Blair would be back soon. “If you hadn’t flirted with Luke, I wouldn’t have gone outside. So really, you dumping me started this whole trauma train thing I’ve got going on,” she argued weakly. 

She couldn’t see April, but she felt the air around her swirl in disbelief. “I don’t know if ‘dumping’ is the right word.”

“It was something, April,” Sterling snapped, turning to look at the girl next to her. “We were... _ together _ and you broke my heart.”

Now April was the blinky one. “You  _ know _ why I couldn’t do it,” she said, her words stubborn but her voice pleading. 

Sterling nodded, numb but understanding nonetheless. “I know, but it still didn’t make it hurt any less.” Her voice cracked and a familiar burn was building behind her eyes. She didn’t want to cry, not anymore, but clearly her body wasn’t getting the message. 

They sat in silence for a few moments, April’s green eyes slowly becoming red-rimmed. One of them sniffled and April took a deep breath. “I should go,” she said as she grabbed her bag, her voice hoarse in a way it hadn’t been moments ago. 

“Wait.” Sterling shifted in her seat and bit her lip. After all the secrets that had been kept from her, she needed to start demanding answers. “Was I ever an Adele?”

There was a pregnant pause and April gave her a pained look. Her mouth quivered and her dulled eyes glistened with tears she visibly forced back. “I think you know the answer to that.”

The door opened and a hand lifted April out of her seat and into the concrete. “You’re in my seat, Stevens,” Blair said brusquely. 

April set her jaw in a move Sterling recognized from Forensics-- it meant she was about to start a debate she knew she would win. 

But Blair was Blair and she had sharp edges; she’d never let herself be backed into a corner without a fight. And April knew that. 

So she rose from the parking lot pavement and dusted herself off, nodding once at Sterling and shoulder-checking Blair as she walked past her.

Blair got into the car and started it, her excess of righteous anger covering up for Sterling’s lack of it. “God, what a bitch,” she muttered. 

She kept on talking, her voice falling and rising in frustration while Sterling looked out the window and saw as the world passed her by. This was never meant to be her home and she wondered whether it would ever feel like it again. She’d lost a lot more than she realized that night. Now she needed to find her way home. Wherever-- and whoever-- that might be.

**Author's Note:**

> hope it was coherent enough


End file.
